Jhoon Goo Rhee (January 7, 1932 – April 30, 2018), commonly known as Jhoon Rhee or GrandmasterJhoon Rhee, was a South Korean master of taekwondo who was widely recognized as the 'Father of American Taekwondo' for introducing this martial art to the United States of America since arriving in the 1950s.[2][3] He was ranked 10th dan.[3]

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Rhee was born on January 7, 1932, in Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation.[4] He began training in the martial arts at the age of 13 (1945), without his father's knowledge.[5] Rhee received martial art training under Nam Tae Hi and graduated from the Chung Do Kwan.[6] During the 1960s, Rhee befriended Bruce Lee—a relationship from which they both benefited as martial artists.[7] He opened his first U.S. based studio in 1962 in Washington, DC, and over time expanded to 11 studios in the DC Metro area.[8]

In the mid-1980s, Rhee operated a network of 11 martial arts studios across the Washington D.C. region.[9] Rhee was well known in the Washington, D.C. area for a television commercial that has a jingle by Nils Lofgren and features Rhee's daughter uttering the catch phrase, "Nobody bothers me," followed by his son saying "Nobody bothers me, either."[10] In 2000, Rhee was the only Korean-American named amongst the 203 most recognized immigrants to the country by the National Immigrant Forum and the Immigration and Naturalization Services.[2]

Rhee was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame in 2007,[11] in which he is he is listed as both the 'Pioneer of American Taekwondo' and the 'Pioneer of Taekwon-Do in Russia'.[12] Rhee is listed as a pioneer in the USA (1950s, 1960s, and 1970s) in Chang Keun Choi's list of taekwondo pioneers.[13]